Xu Mizi was standing frozen outside the door.
She looked at the man before her, still tall and handsome as always, wearing his usual white shirt and dress pants, with the collar and cuffs unbuttoned in his customary loose style. He seemed unchanged, and yet now he was the most unfamiliar person in her eyes.
Inside the room, Nie Yucheng was just as surprised to see Xu Mizi. He stared at her face, stunned for a long while, unable to even speak her name.
Behind him, Lu Zhenzhen saw Xu Mizi and let out a surprised yet gloating “Oh ho!” despite herself.
This time she wasn’t wearing a robe, but a loose sundress. Her fair, translucent skin shone with the glow of someone well-nourished by blessings. She looked as radiant as a flower, in stark contrast to Xu Mizi’s sallow, haggard, lifeless appearance, like a dying old tree.
Lu Zhenzhen stood languidly behind Nie Yucheng, soft and gentle as she spoke: “Yucheng, don’t block the door. Let the cleaning staff in to tidy up the room.”
Nie Yucheng glanced back at her and whispered harshly, “Don’t make trouble!”
Lu Zhenzhen’s face immediately darkened. She walked up and stood with her hands on her hips. Nie Yucheng seemed to be intimidated by something from her, shying away to avoid a direct confrontation.
Lu Zhenzhen laughed, a mocking laugh: “I’m just having the cleaning staff do their job. How is that making trouble? Isn’t that right, Sister Mi?”
She deliberately drew out the “Sister Mi” in a sweet voice.
Xu Mizi looked at Lu Zhenzhen, watching her shamelessly flaunt her smugness.
She knew Lu Zhenzhen was taking revenge on her in a way only the two of them understood: Hadn’t you said you could keep this man by your side? Just look at you now, once so cocky, and yet now you have to serve me, clean my room. And this man is now mine.
Xu Mizi suppressed the complex feelings rising within her. She would not allow herself to examine what those feelings were exactly.
She would not allow herself to regret or retreat. She had to face these two people with dignity, even if her current professional status seemed so insignificant in their eyes.
“Do you need the room cleaned?” she asked, struggling to keep her voice steady, though a hoarse quaver still slipped out.
“No need!”
“Of course!”
Nie Yucheng and Lu Zhenzhen spoke in unison, giving completely opposite answers.
“Mizi, you don’t need to come in and clean!” Nie Yucheng moved closer to the door, his tone urgent, wanting Xu Mizi to leave quickly, as if he couldn’t bear to see her in such a humiliating position before them.
Xu Mizi looked woodenly at Nie Yucheng. His eyes seemed to reflect immense distress and anguish, all of it arising plainly because of her.
She looked again at Lu Zhenzhen.
How strange. She didn’t know what means Lu Zhenzhen had used, to make Nie Yucheng so wary of her now. When Lu Zhenzhen planted her hands on her hips again, Nie Yucheng halted his steps forward, not daring to get near her, as if afraid of harming her.
With this gesture, Lu Zhenzhen silently subdued Nie Yucheng.
Then she turned back, breaking into a sweet smile as she told Xu Mizi, “Sister Mi, if I asked you to do a full cleaning job, you could say I was deliberately making things difficult for you. Why don’t you just help wipe down the tables and take out the trash.”
Xu Mizi glanced at Nie Yucheng blocking her way, and said flatly, “Excuse me, please move aside.”
But Nie Yucheng remained standing there motionless. Lu Zhenzhen came over and pulled him aside. As Xu Mizi entered the room, she saw Nie Yucheng’s brow furrowed as if in pain.
She quietly went over to wipe down the tables. Lu Zhenzhen sauntered over and sat languidly in the leather armchair by the table, looking up at Xu Mizi as she spoke, her voice full of concern: “Sister Mi, I remember you used to spend your days either watching dramas or pampering your skin. Haven’t you been taking good care of yourself lately? Your skin now looks nearly forty years old.”
Xu Mizi gave no indication of hearing her, not answering or even glancing her way as she efficiently moved a glass of water aside to wipe the table clean.
After wiping the table, she crouched down to gather the trash under the table into a bag.
Watching her, Lu Zhenzhen picked up the glass of water on the table. As she raised the glass past Xu Mizi’s head, her hand happened to shake.
The water in the glass splashed onto the top of Xu Mizi’s head.
Xu Mizi was crouching on the floor gathering trash when her vision suddenly blurred. She shut her eyes, feeling the warm water streaming down her forehead along with her hair.
She understood instantly what had happened.
Lu Zhenzhen was getting back at her for that glass of water she had flung out previously.
When Xu Mizi opened her eyes again, her lashes were still beaded with droplets. Remaining crouched on the floor, she slowly lifted her head to look at Lu Zhenzhen.
“Sorry about that, Sister Mi, my hand shook a bit.” Lu Zhenzhen waved the glass lazily as she offered her insincere apology in a gentle, calm voice.
From her eyes and expression, Xu Mizi saw the deliberation behind the act, the vengeance in humiliating her before her ex-husband.
Xu Mizi swiftly considered – if she impulsively jumped up now and splashed a glass back onto Lu Zhenzhen’s head, she would likely lose this job.
So why not take a gamble at some retaliation instead?
Gamble and see whether Nie Yucheng had truly run out of feelings for her after their separation.
She remained crouching there, turning to look at Nie Yucheng. She knew her lashes still bore those dewdrops, making it seem as if she had tears in her eyes. She arranged her expression into one of hurt resentment yet stoic endurance, and gazed at Nie Yucheng through her tear-like lashes without saying anything, yet conveying everything with her eyes.
She realized she was not without cunning herself. Repaying Lu Zhenzhen in her own way was even more satisfying than splashing her back.
In Nie Yucheng’s eyes, Xu Mizi immediately saw immense anguish, anguish he unabashedly displayed for her sake.
He rushed up with a towel and pulled Xu Mizi to her feet, drying her dripping wet hair right in front of Lu Zhenzhen’s face.
Xu Mizi thought this was enough. Any more contact from Nie Yucheng now would make her nauseous.
She raised her hand to fend him off and took a step back.
Lu Zhenzhen stood up from her chair, eyes brimming with tears as she whimpered, “Yucheng, I’m your wife, I’m your lawful wife! How can you show such intimate care for another woman right in front of me?” She was on the verge of being crazed by anger, madness, and jealousy.
Nie Yucheng glanced at her and responded in a low, firm voice, “Lu Zhenzhen, restrain yourself!”
Saying so, he raised his hand toward her shoulder, seemingly wanting to push her back into the room. But as if recalling something, he checked himself, only resting his hand lightly on her shoulder before quickly withdrawing it.
Lu Zhenzhen’s eyes turned crimson, her voice coming out wet with tears: “Are you going to shove me, Yucheng? Go ahead then, shove me and the baby down!”
Upon hearing this, Xu Mizi immediately understood what had given Nie Yucheng pause this whole time.
Nie Yucheng didn’t escalate his actions, but his tone remained uncompromising. He stared coldly at Lu Zhenzhen, enunciating each word clearly: “You. Go. Back. To. The room. Now!”
Seeing his expression, Lu Zhenzhen knew she had pushed him to his limit. She didn’t dare clash with him anymore; after all, this man responded better to softness than hardness. She was already his lawful wife, while Xu Mizi was just the discarded former wife. She would give them this bit of space for now, and settle the score with Xu Mizi later.
She shot one fierce glare at Xu Mizi before going back into the room.
Behind her, Nie Yucheng shut the door. Then he seized Xu Mizi’s arm and hurried her a good distance down the hallway until they reached a fire escape stairwell. He clearly didn’t want Lu Zhenzhen to overhear their conversation.
Although they were some distance from that room now, they were very close to the elevator area, on the main route to the executive lounge. It would be easy for people to pass by here. Xu Mizi wanted to free herself from Nie Yucheng as quickly as possible. She didn’t want to get embroiled with her ex-husband here and become gossip fodder.
But no matter how she struggled, Nie Yucheng refused to let go. He seemed to be gripping her with more force than he ever had before, almost like a now-or-never desperation.
When Xu Mizi struggled again, it seemed to provoke Nie Yucheng’s temper. He shoved her against the wall, pinning her wrists high above her head with one hand, while using his body to press her against the wall.
Xu Mizi was furious. She didn’t understand on what grounds Nie Yucheng could still treat her this way after cheating on her and divorcing her.
Just then, the elevator dinged as the doors opened.
More than one person emerged, their voices drawing nearer in conversation. It sounded like executives heading to the lounge.
Xu Mizi lowered her voice urgently, almost pleading now: “Nie Yucheng, let go. People are coming!”
Breathing heavily, Nie Yucheng bargained with her: “Alright, but you can’t run off!”
The tip of a leather shoe could be seen rounding the corner already. Desperate, Xu Mizi agreed, “Okay!”
Only then did Nie Yucheng release her hands, though he still didn’t back away, standing intimately close as he panted roughly for breath.
To an outsider, it would look as if he was breathing heavily out of anger at her, barely able to control his emotions.
Those people – drawing near, passing them by, moving past – all headed for the executive lounge.
Xu Mizi kept her head lowered the entire time. She didn’t dare lift her face, unwilling to let these passing executives see her shameful scene with her ex-husband. She watched those shiny black leather shoes tread nearer across the carpet, as if trampling her dignity with each step, filling her with a sense of inescapable humiliation.
Finally the last figure disappeared into the lounge.
Xu Mizi raised her head to meet Nie Yucheng’s bloodshot eyes.
He reached out to touch her cheek, his voice coming out hoarse and choked up, “Mizi, how much weight have you lost? You look so haggard…are you not doing well?”
Xu Mizi immediately jerked her face aside to dodge his hand. She no longer bothered to conceal her repulsion toward him now, using the back of her hand to vigorously wipe the spot he had touched, clearly signaling she found him filthy.
Nie Yucheng froze at that.
Lowering her hand, Xu Mizi asked coldly, “Nie Yucheng, is there anything else? If not, move aside. I need to get back to work.”
As she moved to leave, Nie Yucheng hurriedly blocked her path again, babbling incoherently in explanation: “Mizi, she’s pregnant, that’s why I married her! There was a burst pipe at home, so I came to stay at this hotel. I didn’t know you were working on this floor…as a server. Otherwise I definitely wouldn’t have stayed on this floor, wouldn’t have let her humiliate you like that! I’m sorry, Mizi. I…”
Xu Mizi cut him off. Right now she only felt exhausted, without even the energy to remain cold toward him.
“Nie Yucheng, stop explaining all this to me. It’s meaningless. Let’s leave each other in peace.”
She spoke wearily, looking at Nie Yucheng as if at a complete stranger she had never known, detached andremote to the point of being hurtful.
Nie Yucheng found all other words dying in his throat in the face of Xu Mizi’s gaze. He stared blankly at her, the shock greater than any heartbreak, seemingly unable to fathom that Xu Mizi could sever their ties so cleanly.
“Move aside,” Xu Mizi enunciated word by word.
Nie Yucheng was rendered motionless by this version of her. He involuntarily shifted to the side.
Xu Mizi lifted her feet to walk away, her retreating figure frail yet resolute. She didn’t look back at him even once along the way.
In the afternoon, Ji Feng had arranged to meet with potential acquisition targets to discuss a business takeover. He disliked others encroaching on his territory, so he had set the meeting in the executive lounge.
When it was close to time, he and Xue Rui took the elevator down.
By chance, when they reached the executive floor, the other party was also just emerging from another elevator. So they joined up and all walked together toward the lounge.
Turning the corner, they encountered an unexpected scene.
A tall man had a female server pinned against the wall, one hand gripping both her wrists raised above her head.
The female server seemed to be pleading faintly.
The man released her.
As they drew abreast of this man and woman, the female server kept her head lowered, looking flustered and timid. The man was breathing heavily, barely suppressing a simmering rage.
Ji Feng only glanced briefly, already recognizing who these two were.
His eyes took on a contemptuous look.
After they had passed the pair, Xue Rui sidled up to Ji Feng and murmured, “Boss, that’s that Xu…woman, and her husband seems to be asking her for money again. Should I go over and…” He didn’t finish his sentence, but Ji Feng already grasped his meaning: Should I go help that Xu woman?
Without breaking stride, Ji Feng sliced a sideways glower at Xue Rui.
His voice was quiet but heavy with contempt and disgust: “Are you overfed? She chooses not to divorce and remains stuck in a rotten marriage. What business of yours is it to help her?”
Seeing Ji Feng’s extreme contempt and abhorrence toward Xu Mizi, Xue Rui immediately shut his mouth, not daring say anything more.
Walking behind them, Wei Siyuan had only seen them exchange a few muted words without catching the content. He intuitively guessed Ji Feng was expressing distaste over the unseemly spectacle with the man and woman back in the hallway just now.
Wanting to save face, he spoke up as soon as they were seated in the lounge: “My apologies for the disruption to Mr. Ji’s mood earlier on. The hotel is usually very elegant and peaceful. We don’t normally have situations like today, with guests and servers carrying on all sorts of inappropriate business in the hallways. I’ll call the Housekeeping Manager right away to severely address this matter and tighten management in future!”
Ji Feng lazily responded with an attitude of “No need.” To specially bring up this matter would be like paying undue attention to that man and woman.
They didn’t warrant his notice.
Xue Rui chimed in: “Mr. Wei, Mr. Ji has another meeting coming up. Why don’t we just focus on the specifics of this acquisition as quickly as possible? We’ve been working out of the hotel office lately and have compiled quite a few issues to go over regarding the acquisition.”
Wei Siyuan promptly gathered his wits and agreed, saying “Sure, sure.”
After extricating herself from Nie Yucheng’s hounding, Xu Mizi first stowed her cart away before ducking into the restroom.
Looking in the mirror, she saw her usually parted bangs were now plastered wetly to her forehead. Her already sallow complexion looked even more aged from the drenching.
She gazed at the person in the mirror and thought, how wretched she looked, how ignoble.
Pulling some paper towels from the dispenser, she slowly dabbed the water from her forehead.
As she dabbed, she looked in the mirror, which seemed to reflect back Lu Zhenzhen’s radiant face – that face, young and beautiful, its skin taut and supple.
It was as if Lu Zhenzhen was mocking her – See what an old crone you’ve become!
Xu Mizi tossed the soaked towels and let her hands drop to her sides, slowly curling them into fists.
What now? After splitting from Nie Yucheng, it seemed only she was faring poorly.
She used to be able to stand on the moral high ground and scorn Lu Zhenzhen to her heart’s content. But now, she had to endure being looked down on, ordered around, and humiliated by this usurping mistress.
It was as if they were all living in prosperity, only she alone suffering miserably.
She looked at Lu Zhenzhen’s smug, arrogant smile reflected in the mirror. Her fists hanging at her sides clenched tighter and tighter. How had she let her days become like this? How had she allowed herself to become so pathetic?
Suddenly a voice sounded over the walkie-talkie. Someone was calling for housekeeping to send someone to inspect a room where the smoke alarm had gone off. Everyone quickly reported their locations.
Xu Mizi was closest to that room, so she was dispatched to check out the situation. Xu Mizi didn’t even have time to fix her bangs, just roughly pushed them aside, then hurried out of the bathroom.
She told herself to first set aside her turbulent emotions. The urgent task was to quickly go see if there was a fire emergency in the room with the triggered alarm.
It turned out to be a false alarm, though not completely false.
What happened was a young girl had hidden in the room, preparing to livestream her charcoal suicide for her boyfriend. Although no actual loss of life had occurred, Xu Mizi was badly frightened.
She wanted to use the walkie-talkie to call for help, but unexpectedly the girl, although heartbroken, still had tremendous strength. She rushed up and snatched away Xu Mizi’s walkie-talkie, while pleading to her: “Sister, don’t call anyone over. I don’t want people coming to laugh at my lovesick plight!”
This sentence struck a chord in Xu Mizi’s heart. Wasn’t she also someone grievously hurt by love? Why not help another in the same boat?
She agreed to the girl’s request, took back the walkie-talkie, and relayed: Checked it out, they are burning incense, no problem.
Then she set down the walkie-talkie and looked at the girl. She didn’t dare leave the room, afraid the girl would try burning charcoal again.
The girl paid her no mind, only crying, shouting, pleading, cursing, and then pleading again to the boy over the phone.
From these turbulent, intense emotions, Xu Mizi grasped a general idea of what had happened.
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